Angie Watts
'Angie Watts '''is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders, and the wife of landlord Den Watts. Angie is well known for her cheeky banter, her perm and turning to alcohol during her stormy marriage to cheating Den Watts, which ended when he handed her divorce papers on Christmas Day 1986. Despite being the loud and feisty lady of Walford, and having a close relationship with her beloved adoptive daughter Sharon, she doesn't have much real happiness during her time in Albert Square. Alcoholism claimed her life in April 2002 when she died of cirrhosis of the liver, 14 years after her last appearance. Biography Alcoholic Angie shares a stormy marriage with her womanising husband, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), and refuses to let him go even during their rockiest times. They run and live in The Queen Victoria public house on Albert Square. Angie and Den doted on their teenage adoptive daughter, Sharon (Letitia Dean) - who carries on loving them despite her resentment of Den's affairs and Angie's binge drinking. Angie is good at putting on a front for the customers, dressing to kill, screeching outrageously with the girls, but inside she is crippled with depression. Despite all her bravado, all she really wants is a happy marriage with Den, despite the fact that he treats her terribly and has endless affairs with other women. During 1985, Den and Angie celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary but it soon becomes clear that their marriage is a sham. Behind the scenes of their great business partnership, there is not much of a relationship. Den has a posh mistress Jan Hammond (Jane How), a fact that Angie is all too aware of. Early in the year, Den even manages to get on holiday to Spain with Jan, telling Angie that he is checking out a possible time-share holiday home purchase. With Den gone, Angie does what she always does in times of trouble, and turns to alcohol to drown her sorrows. She also sets about trying to seduce the men of Walford in a bid to get back at her philandering husband. Lofty Holloway (Tom Watt), Simon Wicks (Nick Berry) and even Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) are all subject to Angie's not-so-subtle flirting, but her only successful conquest is local builder, Tony Carpenter (Oscar James). Tony falls for Angie, but she is only using him to get back at Den. The affair is conducted in secret, but they are caught in a passionate clinch in the middle of The Queen Vic by Sharon. Angie has to bribe Sharon to ensure her silence, and even informs her about Den's infidelity. Sharon is disgusted that both her parents are guilty of adultery. Upon Den's return from his holiday with Jan, Angie calls off the affair with Tony, but it is not long before Sharon gives Den the impression that Angie has been unfaithful. Den confronts Angie, and she admits to her and Tony's affair, but unfortunately for her, Den is not concerned about her infidelity, more about his reputation, which upsets Angie even more. Although Angie tries to stop drinking, her attempts always fail dismally and by the end of the year, she is arrested for drink-driving when she crashes Den's car on the way home from a darts match. In 1986, Den's mistress, Jan, starts to frequently visit The Queen Vic. The physical arrival of Jan sends Den and Angie's marriage into further decline as she is unable to contain her jealousy and anger. Angie becomes so depressed that she takes a near lethal cocktail of alcohol and pills in an attempted suicide. By chance, Den returns home early following an argument with Jan, discovers Angie and rushes her to the hospital where she has her stomach pumped. Angie recovers, but is left shaken when she discovers how close to death she actually came. Upon recovering, Angie decides to play Den at his own game and so she begins another affair, this time with Andy O'Brien (Ross Davidson). Den is furious when he discovers them in bed together, but his rage is short-lived as he has more pressing matters on his mind, such as the birth of his illegitimate daughter, Vicki Fowler (Emma Herry), following an affair with Sharon's best friend, Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully). Angie's affair with Andy only lasts a month, ending when Andy reunites with his ex-girlfriend Debbie Wilkins (Shirley Cheriton). Andy dies after being struck by a lorry shortly afterwards. As the year moves on, Den decides that he wants to leave Angie so he can marry Jan. He finally gets round to telling Angie his intentions in October, after which Angie becomes distraught. Desperate to hold on to her husband, she announces that she is terminally ill and only has six months to live. Upon hearing this, Den becomes wracked with guilt, and so decides to revise his plans and stay with Angie. He sets about organising a second honeymoon for them in Venice. However, their holiday is ruined when Jan arrives, and upon seeing her and Den together, Angie starts drinking again, having not long given up. On the way home from Venice on the Orient Express, a drunk Angie tells the barman all about her big lie. Unfortunately for Angie, Den overhears every word, and from that moment on he reverts to his original plan to leave her, although he decides to wait a while before letting Angie know that he knows about her lie. On Christmas Day 1986, Den decides to get his revenge. Thinking that her marriage is safe, Angie is happier than ever - until Den informs her that he overheard her conversation with the barman, and he then serves her divorce papers as a Christmas present. This episode had the highest number of viewers the show has ever seen - with more than 30 million viewers (more than half of the British population) tuning in to see it. In response, Angie and Sharon pack their bags and walk out of the pub, choosing to take the route through the public area to cause Den the most embarrassment possible. In 1987, Angie secures herself a job as the manager of The Queen Vic's rival drinking establishment, The Dagmar. Owner, James Willmott-Brown (William Boyde), is only too happy to have Angie's expertise on board for his new, suave wine bar. Angie and Den continue to row constantly and in a bid for revenge, Angie vows to take Den "to the cleaners" for her divorce settlement. In retaliation, Den installs Jan as the new landlady of The Queen Vic, which only infuriates Angie even more. However, Den and Jan's cohabitation eventually leads to the end of their relationship, when Den decides that Jan is too posh for him, and so by the summer of that year orders her to leave. The Queen Vic is floundering without Angie, a fact that she seems to delight over, and the sheer pleasure of watching Den suffer is all she needs to make her "grin and bear" The Dagmar's yuppie clientele. However, behind her front, Angie is a wreck, drinking more heavily than ever and going on "over the top" shopping sprees. By May 1987, the divorce papers finally come through, but it seems that neither Den nor Angie are coping without each other, and although they both profess to be pleased about the divorce, it is obvious to everyone else that they are far from happy. Seeing her parents' misery, Sharon decides to intervene by setting up a dinner date between them, which ends with them having sex. Angie and Den decide to keep their brief reconciliation quiet. By the end of the year, Angie finally loses her patience with The Dagmar clientele, and after punching one of the customers in the face, she leaves town for a couple of days. Upon her return, she is in great pain, but hides it and marches over to The Queen Vic during the New Year's Eve celebrations and offers to come back to work, but only as Den's business partner and not his wife. In 1988, Angie is rushed to hospital with kidney failure brought on by her excessive alcohol abuse. Upon her recovery, Angie decides to take a well-earned holiday to Spain with her friends, Sonny and Ree. This leads to Angie and Sonny falling in love and embarking on an affair. Sonny makes arrangements for them to start a new life together, running a bar in Spain. Angie returns to Walford, with her plans still secret, and tries to show interest in Den's plan to move the location of The Queen Vic, but it is plain to see that her mind is elsewhere. Den soon realises that she is seeing someone else, and although he does not care that she is with another man, he is concerned for the state of his business. Den visits a solicitor and returns with papers protecting himself and his business should Angie decide to leave him again. Angie decides to leave in May 1988, still under a cloak of secrecy and only divulging her plan to leave on the night of her departure. Unfortunately for Angie, Den cruelly informs her that he has arranged things so that she won't be able to get a penny out of him. After their final showdown, Angie gets into her taxi and leaves Walford. This is Angie's last appearance. Later that year, while Den is in prison, Sharon decides to join Angie in Spain and arrives unannounced, only to learn from Sonny that Angie has left him and moved to the United States. It is subsequently revealed that she moved to Miami where she remarries in February 1991. Sharon joins Angie in 1995 after the breakdown of her marriage to Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp). Den was supposedly shot dead by a mystery hitman in February 1989. In May 2001, Sharon returns to Walford, and in April 2002, news reaches Walford that Angie has died. Sharon brings Angie's body back to Walford to be buried in the local cemetery. After the funeral ceremony, Sharon confides in Angie's closest surviving friends, Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard) and Pat Evans (Pam St Clement), that years of heavy drinking finally caught up with Angie and she died a slow painful decline due to cirrhosis of the liver, having also experienced alcohol-related dementia. Sharon emotionally explains Angie asked her to give the pretence of a heart attack when the time came. Despite having remarried, Angie had requested to be buried next to Den, which Sharon does for her when she returns the body to London in order to reunite her two "dead" parents. Sharon's new club is renamed Angie's Den in honour of her parents. In fact, the body thought to be Den's is actually that of the mysterious Mr. Vinnicombe, the boss of The Firm - who ordered Den's assassination. 14 years after Den's disappearance, it turns out that he had not died after all, and had faked his own death in order to get away from the gangsters who had been employed to kill him. However, Den eventually meets his demise at the hands of his second wife Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman) in February 2005, after being bludgeoned to death with Pauline's doorstop. A body found under the basement of The Queen Vic six months later is quickly identified as Den's, and he is buried in his "original" grave next to Angie. Notes * Angie was one of the original set of twenty-three characters in EastEnders and appeared in the first episode. * Originally, Angie was supposed to be played by actress Jean Fennell. However, during rehearsals, show creators Tony Holland and Julia Smith felt that Fennell was wrong for the part. They recast Fennell with Anita Dobson, and during auditions it was noted that Dobson was "exactly the right age" to play Angie. * Angie was initially going to be called Pearl. * When Dobson announced her departure from the show in 1988, the news was reported on the BBC Six O'Clock News. This was because of how popular Angie was at the time. Navigation Category:Soap Opera Villains Category:EastEnders Villains Category:Trickster Category:Female Category:Femme Fatale Category:Deceased Category:Tragic Category:Remorseful Category:Parents Category:In Love